UHLC advocacy teams excel

Claim national championship and international finalist award

The winning team of Michael Stewart, left, Tanner Honea, and Mary London Lehman walked away with the National Championship, and the trophies, in theJohn R. Brown Admiralty Competition in New Orleans.

March 26, 2012 – University of Houston Law Center advocacy teams showed the nation and the world just how good they are, claiming one national championship trophy and a finalist award in an international competition in Hong Kong.

“These are tremendous accomplishments by our students,” a beaming Jim Lawrence, director of the Blakely Advocacy Institute, said after returning from Hong Kong on Monday. “Our program goal is for our students to become highly skilled advocates in a broad base of advocacy formats and these results show that we are reaching that goal.”

In New Orleans, the team of Tanner Honea, Mary London Lehman, and Michael Stewart ran the table in the John R. Brown Admiralty Competition, beating the University of Texas in the final round to claim the national title. Lehman was named “Best Speaker” of the competition and the team's brief, with Stewart as lead writer, also took top honors as “Best Brief.” The Law Center’s second team of Bradford Hendrickson and Kartik Singapura advanced to the quarterfinals and Hendrickson was named 3rd Best Speaker.

The team was coached by Professor Tobi Tabor, Professor Lauren Simpson, Jim Nye, and Jim Winton and was sponsored by Marine Insurance Seminar.

In Hong Kong, the team of Frank Carroll, Jennifer Frank, and Meredith Rice lost an exceptionally close final round to City University of Hong Kong. The Willem C. Vis (East) International Commercial Arbitration Moot competition featured 90 schools from around the world and UHLC was the only U.S. school to advance past the quarterfinal rounds.

The team also won “Honorable Mention Best Respondent's Memorandum” (lead writer Jennifer Frank) and Carroll earned recognition as an “Honorable Mention Best Oralist.” The team was coached by Ann Ryan Robertson, Lucy Greenwood, and Professor Ben Sheppard. It was sponsored by the AA White Dispute Resolution Center and Andrews Kurth LLP.

The Law Center trio was the last U.S. team standing in the international competition held in Hong Kong. The team was coached by Ann Ryan Robertson, left, and included Jennifer Frank, Frank Carroll, and Meredith Rice.